Land Management in the Flathead Valley

Kalispell~3,080 ft

Valley floor at the head of the Flathead Valley, rising west onto the Foys Lake bench.

Ground & soils

Recent glacial deposits at the surface: massive till exposed along the Foys Lake road, ancestral-lake silts and clays along the Stillwater drainage, and well-drained outwash terraces (the Kalispell soil series takes its name and type location here). Poorly drained swales on the valley floor can hold a seasonal water table within 1–3 feet of grade.

Water & flood exposure

Ashley Creek and the Stillwater River drain toward the Flathead; FEMA-mapped zones along the corridors, and shallow groundwater is a valley-wide constraint the county's septic monitoring exists to measure.

Slope

Nearly level to gently rolling, with moderately steep breaks at entrenched terrace edges.

Fire context

Inside the county's mapped WUI — the 2021 plan added valley bottoms explicitly; grass, brush, and timber pockets among subdivisions.

Centroid on the western bench; the airport NE of town sits at 2,957 ft — the developed area spans roughly 2,950–3,100 ft.

Evergreen~2,916 ft

The low alluvial flat between the Whitefish and Flathead Rivers — the lowest ground of the core communities.

Ground & soils

Shallow alluvium over low-permeability silt and clay: this IS the Evergreen aquifer's footprint, with the shallowest documented groundwater in the valley (median 12 ft, seasonally higher).

Water & flood exposure

Bounded by both rivers, which converge just south; river-corridor FEMA zones on both sides, and spring groundwater rise peaks May–June with Flathead River flows.

Slope

Flat to nearly flat.

Fire context

Valley-floor WUI: grass and brush fuels among dense residential and commercial use.

Creston · Helena Flats~2,957 ft

The classic flat agricultural valley bottom east of Kalispell, between the Flathead River and the Swan Range front.

Ground & soils

The best-documented valley-floor soils in the county: fine-silty, poorly drained lake-and-stream sediments on 0–3% slopes (the Radnor series type location), famous for deep dark topsoil — and carrying a seasonal high water table 12–36 inches below the surface.

Water & flood exposure

River corridor west, Swan tributaries east, outwash ground toward Lake Blaine/Echo Lake — with the set's highest documented shallow-water sensitivity; the county's 7-foot groundwater trigger for septic monitoring is a live constraint on most of this ground.

Slope

Nearly level, 0–3 percent.

Fire context

Open agriculture meeting the Swan Range forest edge — dual planning-area exposure, and exactly the grass-fuel valley bottom the 2021 WUI expansion was written for.

Somers~3,089 ft

Head of Flathead Lake where the valley floor meets the lake basin — delta and lake-plain ground with a low bench rise.

Ground & soils

Deltaic sand and gravel (the MBMG's 'Delta aquifer') over the finer valley sequence.

Water & flood exposure

North-shore delta wetlands are extensive — a 6,300-acre federal conservation easement runs along this reach — and lake-level flood hazard applies near shore.

Slope

Flat delta and lake plain; gentle bench inland.

Fire context

Valley-floor WUI, adjoining the Tally Lake planning area to the west (2007 Brush Creek fire, 30,000 ac).

Centroid on the bench; the lake sits roughly 190 ft below.

Kila~3,584 ft

Smith Valley — a separate, higher basin southwest of Kalispell, enclosed by hills, several hundred feet above the main valley floor.

Ground & soils

Recent glacial deposits at the surface in the Smith subarea (till country); site-scale soils verified per parcel.

Water & flood exposure

Ashley Creek drains the basin east toward the Flathead; the wider valley's wetland acreage is majority-private-land — low ground here gets the wetland screen.

Slope

Rolling basin floor with more relief than the main valley.

Fire context

Tally Lake planning area (Brush Creek 2007 burned 30,000 acres in this zone); the US 2 West corridor is a named value at risk.

Lakeside · Rollins~3,009 ft

Flathead Lake's west shore: a narrow terrace-and-hillslope shelf between the water and the ridge.

Water & flood exposure

Lakeshore flood hazard plus short, steep tributary draws; parcel exposure is read off the FIRM.

Slope

The most consistently sloped of the lake communities — steep hillside to narrow terrace.

Fire context

Tally Lake planning area; US 93 is the named at-risk corridor — the west shore's access redundancy is thin.

Whitefish~3,034 ft

North end of the valley at the foot of the Whitefish Range, at the outlet of Whitefish Lake — ground climbs abruptly toward Big Mountain.

Ground & soils

Transitional: valley sediments giving way to till-derived footslope soils carrying abundant coarse Belt-rock fragments (the Whitefish soil series type location is this county) — coarser, stonier digging than the valley floor.

Water & flood exposure

Whitefish Lake and the Whitefish River corridor carry the mapped flood hazard; lakeshore parcels add lakeshore-protection review.

Slope

Level in the townsite, steepening sharply onto the range front north and west.

Fire context

The broadest fire-exposure footprint in the county — Whitefish appears in three of the CWPP's six planning areas (valley floor, Whitefish Range, North Fork), with its own plan annex.

Columbia Falls~3,079 ft

Where the Flathead River exits Bad Rock Canyon into the open valley — canyon mouth on one side, valley floor on the other.

Ground & soils

Recent glacial deposits grading to coarser alluvium and outwash toward the river and canyon mouth; finer lake-bed ground on the flats south and west.

Water & flood exposure

On the Flathead River itself — the Columbia Falls gage is the valley's groundwater reference, peaking with May–June runoff; river-corridor FEMA zones apply.

Slope

Flat to gently sloping, with the canyon's steep walls immediately upstream.

Fire context

Split exposure: valley-floor WUI south of US 2 and North Fork forest country beyond — the planning area whose fire list includes the 2001 Moose (71,000 ac) and 2003 Robert (52,900 ac) fires.

Bigfork · Ferndale · Woods Bay~3,067 ft

Northeast corner of Flathead Lake at the Swan River mouth, rising east into the Swan Range front.

Ground & soils

East-side till, outwash, and lake sediments; the east-side aquifers run deeper and coarser than the Evergreen flat (median well depth ~35 ft).

Water & flood exposure

Swan River delta and lakeshore: flood hazard along both, plus lakeshore-protection review near the water.

Slope

Steep and broken at the Swan gorge and shoreline bluff, rolling bench inland.

Fire context

Dual exposure: valley-floor WUI plus the Swan Range planning area — the county's most national-forest-heavy zone, where the WUI is a narrow settled strip along the highways.

Centroid is inland/upslope; the village and shoreline sit near lake level (~2,890–2,900 ft) — about 150–175 ft of relief inside the CDP.

Marion~4,320 ft

Forested upland along US 2 West, roughly 1,400 ft above the valley floor — mountain country, not valley.

Water & flood exposure

Headwater ground rather than mapped river floodplain; verify per parcel.

Slope

Rolling to hilly, forest-dominated.

Fire context

The forest-interface end of the WUI spectrum — deepest into the Tally Lake planning area's timber, with its own fire department among the plan's stakeholders.